As many as 150 community schools in Lamjung have less than 20 students each.

Section Officer Babu Ram Baral at Lamjung District Education Office said of the 349 community schools in the district, 150 schools were found operating with less than 20 students. He said most of the primary schools in the district did not even have 20 students. “Though the district education office frequently wrote to the schools about devising new policies and plans to attract students, the number is going down every year. Now the situation is such that 56 schools in the district do not even have 10 students each,” said Baral.

Buddhi Bikash Primary School in Besisahar Municipality-10 has just one student whereas the number of teachers at the school is three. For the last few years, the school has been running with only one student. Similar is the plight of Ganesh Primary School of the same municipality where there are three teachers for just two students.

Arunodaya Primary School of Marsyangdi Rural Municipality-9, Simpani Bhalam and Janachetana Primary schools of Khudi Arkhalebesi have two students each while Srijana Primary School of Bhulbhule has four students and two teachers. There are three students at Birendra Shanti Primary School at Mohoriyakot of Rainas Municipality, three students at Himalaya Primary School at Bahundanda of Marsyangdi-6 and four students at Bal Bikash Primary School at Kunchha of Sundarbazaar Municipality. Similarly, only a few students were enrolled at Bidhya Jyoti Primary School at Ghanpokhara Ghopte of Marsyangdi-1, five students each were enrolled at Janakalyan Primary School of Ghimrang and Deurali Primary School of Khudi Jimdu in the district.

As per the data with Baral, a total of 4,000 students leave community schools in the district every year. Though the office tried to merge the schools operating with a negligible number of students in the past, it was not effective. The programme failed to gain momentum due to lack of cooperation on the part of various political forces and teacher organisations. Only a total of 20 schools were merged while 10 others were relegated.

Then District Education Officer Gyan Mani Nepal was preparing to merge as many as 141 schools having a negligible number of students.

A version of this article appears in print on January 29, 2018 of The Himalayan Times.